The Criminal Situation of Today's Russia : The Criminal Tendency by Regions, Sorts and Social Stratums, and the Situation of Prisoners

Abstract

This article analyzes the contents of the Russian criminal statistics that began to be released to the public from end of the Soviet era and examines the changes of the Russian society behind the crimes. There are three particular periods when crimes in Russia rapidly increased from 1982 to 2002. The first period is 1983, but the increase rate is not as prominent as the other two periods. The second period is 1989-1992, before and after the collapse of the Soviet Union, when the number of crimes increased because morality and social order collapsed due to the following: introduction and expansion of the market economy, the social maladaption of the returned soldiers from Afghanistan, and the confusion brought by the collapse of the Soviet Union. From 1989 to 1992, atrocious crimes such as murders, rapes and robberies especially increased. The third period is 1998-1999. The financial crisis in 1998 deprived millions of people of their savings and wages. Today the most serious crimes are crimes related to drugs, psychotropic medicines and deadly poisond. Drugs such as heroin and poppy seeds come to Russia mainly from Afghanistan and Tadzhikistan through Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz and Turkmenistan, and the part of them flows out to Ukraine and Western Europe. Drugs are expanding to smaller cities in Russia, not to mention the large cities. Now not only does the Russian government have to reinforce anticrime measures, but also have to reinforce the redistribution of wealth for the week, to promote national welfare, to regulate corruption of government officials and to promote tax collection in order to reduce the number of crimes.